NewsBreakingOnline

Family of murdered British woman will be able to question alleged killer Tatsuya Ichihashi in court The family of the murdered British woman Lindsay Hawker have arrived in Japan on the eve of the trial of the man accused of killing her and burying her body in a bathtub four years ago. “We are here to get justice for my daughter, it’s been a long time coming,” Hawker’s father, Bill, said at Narita airport near Tokyo. “I can’t say much more because the trial is about to start, except to thank the police and everyone who’s been involved in this case. Now we just want to get it over and done with.” Tatsuya Ichihashi has been charged with raping and murdering Hawker, then 22, and disposing of her body at his apartment in Ichikawa, a suburban town in Chiba prefecture, just east of Tokyo, in March 2007. Hawker, from Brandon, near Coventry, had been beaten and strangled, and her hands and legs bound with plastic gardening cord. As “victim participants” under Japan’s court system, the Hawkers will be permitted to question Ichihashi during his trial, which opens on Monday with the first of six hearings at Chiba district court. At the court’s discretion, they may also give their opinion on sentencing. Before leaving Heathrow on Saturday, Bill Hawker, who travelled with his wife, Julia, and their two daughters, Lisa and Louise, said: “We’re a strong family and we’re going to see this through to the end.” The court has appointed six members of the public to serve as lay judges at the trial following the introduction of limited trial by jury in 2009. The lay judge system allows members of the public to work alongside professional judges to determine guilt or innocence and decide on a sentence. The presiding judge, Masaya Hotta, is expected to hand down a ruling on 21 July after consulting the lay judges and three professional judges. The verdict could hang on whether the jurors believe Ichihashi intended to kill Hawker after she accompanied him to his apartment following a private English lesson at a nearby cafe. Ichihashi has reportedly said he inadvertently crushed her windpipe while trying to prevent her calling for help. He has admitted disposing of Hawker’s body but denies the rape and murder charges. Ichihashi, a 32-year-old former horticulture student, evaded several police officers when questioned at the entrance to his apartment about Hawker’s disappearance and fled in his socks, dropping a rucksack containing cash. Inside, officers discovered Hawker’s naked and battered body buried in a sand-filled bathtub on the balcony. Despite a reward of 10 million yen (£80,000) for information leading to his arrest and 8,000 reported sightings, Ichihashi evaded police for more than two and half years. He spent time in 23 of Japan’s 47 prefectures, found casual work on construction sites and underwent extensive plastic surgery in a bid to evade capture. He was arrested in November 2009 in Osaka while waiting to board a ferry to the southern island of Okinawa. A passenger had contacted port officials after recognising Ichihashi, who was wearing a hat, sunglasses and a paper surgical mask. Ichihashi wrote to the Hawkers while he was in custody apologising for their daughter’s death, but the family dismissed the letter as a ploy to gain a lenient sentence. Earlier this year he published a book , Until I Am Arrested, which detailed his two years and seven months as a fugitive. He described the book as “a gesture of contrition”, adding that he wanted royalties to go to the Hawker family or a charity. Ichihashi does not discuss his alleged crimes in the book, but recounts his daily quest to evade capture. He travelled between Aomori in Japan’s north to Okinawa, a subtropical island in the far south. He described how he had removed a mole from his face to alter his appearance, before having several rounds of plastic surgery, paid for with cash earned during 13 months working on an Osaka construction site. Hawker had arrived in Japan in October 2006 to work at an English conversation school after graduating with a biology degree from Leeds University earlier that year. Japan Justin McCurry guardian.co.uk